The Hindu
Mangalore, Oct 3: Women and intellectuals have long been seeking 33 per cent reservation for women in elected bodies. Mangalore City Corporation Council has gone beyond by seven per cent. As many as 40 per cent of the councillors are women in the fifth council elected on Friday.
However, what is disheartening is the fact that women power in the council has come down by five per cent this time compared to the numbers in the fourth council formed in 2002. The number of women councillors in the body elected on Friday has come down by three — from 27 councillors in 2002 to 24 councillors in 2007.
In the new council, 13 women are from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), eight from the Congress, one from the Communist Party of India (Marxists) and two are independent candidates.
In 2002, the BJP had six women in the council and the Congress had 21 women. Mariyamma Thomas and Rajani Dugganna, who were elected to the council in 2002 from the BJP, and Gulzar Bhanu and S. Appi, who were elected from the Congress, were re-elected in Friday’s election.
Ms. Dugganna was elected from Surathkal East ward in the last election. This time she has been elected from Hosabettu ward. Ms. Thomas, who won from Kodialbail ward in 2002, contested as BJP rebel candidate (independent) this time and won from Padavu Central ward.
Ms. Bhanu and Ms. Appi have been re-elected from Katipalla North and Jeppu wards, respectively. They won from the same wards in the last election. Jyothi Prakash, a BJP-supported independent candidate, won from Thiruvail ward in this election.
In this year’s election, the BJP and the Congress contested for 59 wards. The two parties fielded 23 women candidates each.
Incidentally, there have been more women voters in the corporation wards than men. Of the 3,21,570 voters in the 60 wards of the corporation, 1,63,213 are women and 1,58,357 men.
More importantly, women have been vociferous in exercising their franchise too. About 6,500 more women cast their votes than men. The percentage of voting on Friday stood at 60.85. In all, 1,95,802 persons cast their votes. Of them, 1,01,364 were women and 94,438 men.
According to Ms. Dugganna, there should have been at least 30 elected women in the council.